Best Seller Books: All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! Review

All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space [Paperback]

By a happy accident, I stumbled upon the 1982 copy of Square Foot Gardening.I was very pleased with his concept.However, having a full acre but not a tiller, I was even more pleased when I came across his All New Square Foot Gardening."What an ingenious method!" thought I.No $50 fee for a tiller and borrowing a truck and all that mess!That's until I tried to actually put it into practice.Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic concept, and it works very well and you should get this book if you want to garden smarter not harder, but there are a few hiccups I wanted other readers to know about before they got started.

For those of you who have not perused the book or are familiar with the new method, I'll sum it up for you:you build these four by four boxes--no tilling required--cover the bottom with weed blocker material, and then fill it with a particular mix that Mel says works like a dream. The boxes are easy, the method is brilliant, but the mix was a different story.1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite, agricultural gauge, which means chunky bits of vermiculite, not fine.

Everything was going smoothly until we tried to find vermiculite. We checked all the Home Depot type megastores, the little stores, gardening supply, everything he says to do in the book, to no avail.When we did find it at a pool supply company, we were informed we would have to pay $125 shipping to get it here from Atlanta.Online did not prove much better because we are growing a garden to save money, not spend more.

Finally, we had to settle for the fine stuff from a pool supply company which was pretty fine grade, but made the most luxurious and easy to work with soil I have ever seen.It was worth the search, but here's the problem I had:

Now Mel addresses the vermiculite availbility on his website, saying that it is now available in Utah, with no shipping.Utah, huh?No problem!Except we live in Memphis.When we wrote the website explaining our trouble finding it at a reasonable cost, we did get a quick reply (to all our questions, btw) and they sent us a pre-formatted response telling us to check at the home supply mega-stores because he's never found one that didn't carry it.My question is if it's everywhere then why have the pre-formatted response?And when he addresses finding a substitute, says that yes, you can substitute perlite (which is much easier to find) but he says don't do it because it makes him sneeze, it doesn't hold moisture as well as vermiculite, and he doesn't like the way that it feels or how it makes the garden look.

Well.Aren't we a just a bit Martha.Lemme just write that check for $185 to the pool supply with the agricultural grade.

So that being said, why did I give it five stars?Because other than finding the vermiculite--which we finally did in fine grade for $28 for four boxes--I've rarely seen a more reader-friendly book!It comes complete with layout pages, very consise planting guides, even planting time tables for your area and the amount of time you can store your seeds!If you have never gardened before or started a garden that eventually left you frustrated, then this is the book for you! I just think that you should check your area for agricultural grade vermiculite before you buy the book.But once that little snafu is over, you are going to be amazed at how brilliant and easy this book makes successful gardening.

I highly recommend this method for busy people and parents like myself.It is wonderfully easy to maintain, makes loads of produce, and looks very attractive.Two green thumbs way, way up.

To see my boxes and my experience with the All New Square Foot Gardening method, check out my frugal/tipping blog at http://moness.typepad.com.

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Product Description:
Do you know what the best feature is in All New Square Foot Gardening?
Sure, there are ten new features in this all-new, updated book. Sure, it's even simpler than it was before. Of course, you don't have to worry about fertilizer or poor soil ever again because you'll be growing above the ground.But, the best feature is that "anyone," "anywhere" can enjoy a Square Foot garden. Children, adults with limited mobility, even complete novices can achieve spectacular results.But, let's get back to the ten improvements. You're going to love them.1) New Location - Move your garden closer to your house by eliminating single-row gardening. Square Foot Garden needs just "twenty percent" of the space of a traditional garden.2) New Direction - Locate your garden "on top" of existing soil. Forget about pH soil tests, double-digging (who enjoys that?), or the never-ending soil improvements.3) New Soil - The new "Mel's Mix" is the perfect growing mix. Why, we even give you the recipe. Best of all, you can even "buy" the different types of compost needed.4) New Depth - You only need to prepare a SFG box to a depth of 6 inches! It's true--the majority of plants develop just fine when grown at this depth.5) No Fertilizer - The all new SFG does not need any fertilizer-ever! If you start with the perfect soil mix, then you don't need to add fertilizer.6) New Boxes - The new method uses bottomless boxes placed aboveground. We show you how to build your own (with step-by-step photos).7) New Aisles - The ideal gardening aisle width is about three to four feet. That makes it even easier to kneel, work, and harvest.8)New Grids - Prominent and permanent grids added to your SFG box help you visualize the planting squares and know how to space for maximum harvest.9)New Seed Saving Idea - The old-fashioned way advocates planting many seeds and then thinning the extras (that means pulling them up). The new method means planting a pinch- literally two or three seeds--per planting hole.10) Tabletop Gardens - The new boxes are so much smaller and lighter (only 6 inches of soil, remember?), you can add a plywood bottom to make them portable.

Of course, that's not all. We've also included simple, easy-to-follow instructions using lots of photos and illustrations. You're going to love it!

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